Climategate: Lawsuit to Open NASA’s Books

Apparently NASA’s James Hansen has been as secretive over at NASA as the UK climate warming scientists caught up on Climategate were, refusing to release data by which NASA had made its calculations puruant to a Freedom of Information Act request. A lawsuit is being filed. From the story:

The fight over global warming science is about to cross the Atlantic with a U.S. researcher poised to sue NASA, demanding release of the same kind of climate data that has landed a leading British center in hot water over charges it skewed its data. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and would explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data going as far back as the 1930s. “I assume that what is there is highly damaging,” Mr. Horner said. “These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this.” The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed that data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for first, with 1934 slightly cooler.

Throw open the books! This issue is one of the most important of our times and “the scientists” have no right to keep the data secret or the methods of coming to conclusions. Indeed, if global warming is so obvious and beyond debate, they would want us to see all the data. All of it! I mean, what better way to prove one’s position than letting the data speak for itself?

Ah, but if it isn’t, or if it has been wildly exaggerated, well, secrecy becomes a needed protection, doesn’t it? I have always thought this was the case: Gore’s refusal to debate has been more than just a matter of being imperious.

And Congress? You can hear the crickets chirping among the majority. As I have said before, they know what they don’t want to know.